I was recently invited to an exclusive industry event at Rombauer Vineyards on Silverado Trail in Napa Valley. Among wine experts and casual wine drinkers alike, Rombauer is considered to be the quintessential producer of "California-style" Chardonnay. While "French-style" Chard is typically crisp, citrus-flavored, lighter colored, and more acidic, California Chardonnay has deeper golden color, … Continue reading Rombauer: Much more than buttery Chardonnay→

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We had the opportunity last week to meet Sharon Kazan Harris, the owner and Director of Winemaking at Rarecat Wines in Napa Valley. There are a growing number of women vintners in Northern California wine country, but Sharon is one-of-a-kind. Not only does her Rarecat label produce wines from Napa, she is also producing, importing … Continue reading Encountering a rare cat in Napa Valley→

Highway 29 and the Silverado Trail wind their way through some of the most well-known appellations in wine country: Stags Leap District, Oakville, and Rutherford, to name a few. Along the "valley floor" there are dozens of wineries, many of which are household names; some wineries have even achieved cult-wine status. But where there is … Continue reading Smith-Madrone winery on Napa’s Spring Mountain→

Most of the wineries we write about are family owned, small-production ventures. Last Sunday we went to Cakebread Cellars, one of the Valley's most established wineries and one that by no measure would be considered "small production." Annually, Cakebread produces over 150,000 cases of wine, which translates to nearly 2 million bottles. Clearly, Cakebread is … Continue reading My 3 favorite things: cake, bread, wine→

We usually don’t think of wine and gravity going together. When I knock over a glass of wine, gravity causes the precious juice to fall to the floor. Or worse yet, when the 2014 Napa earthquake struck, gravity maliciously conspired with shaking of the Earth to cause many bottles of wine to plummet to their … Continue reading At Moshin Vineyards gravity is good for the wine→